Many animals must be periodically brushed to remove shed hair, dander, insects and the like. Brushing also has beneficial effects for the health of the animal's skin and coat. It can be undesirable for the animal if the animal is not brushed. In some instances, brushing can be accompanied by the application of special medicinal powders and the like.
Accordingly, there are many designs for brushes intended to care for animals such as small pets, including dogs, cats and the like. Such brushes are generally hand held and are used by a human to groom the animal.
While these brushes work well for such small animals, large animals, such as cows, require brushing as well. The small hand-held brushes of the prior art may work to some degree, but are not fully practical for such large animals, especially if there are a large number of such large animals to be cared for. This problem is exacerbated if the animals are kept in stalls for long periods and may not be easily accessible for such grooming.
Accordingly, there is a need for a brushing device that can be used on large animals, such as cows. There is a further need for such a brushing device that can be used on an animal that is not confined and to which access may be difficult.
It is desirable that an animal be able to obtain brushing without depending on human contact. That is, the brushing should be available on a demand basis. This is especially true in the case of an animal that is not confined. Therefore, there is a need for an animal brushing system that can be automatically activated by an animal.
Still further, since not all animals are the same size, if a brush is automatically activated, it must also account for different size animals. If a human were operating the brush, such account would not be necessary; however, an automatically operated brush must be able to automatically accommodate different size animals.
Therefore, there is a need for an animal brushing system that does not need a human operator yet can accommodate different size animals.
Since many animals spend at least some of their time out of doors, it is desirable that a brushing system be amenable to outdoor as well as indoor use. Therefore, there is a need for an animal brushing system that can be used both indoors and outdoors.
Since many farms have a large number of animals, it is desirable that as many brushing systems as possible be available. However, these systems must be properly maintained. Maintenance cannot be overly expensive or time consuming or the purpose of the automatic, on-demand brushing system will be vitiated. Therefore, there is a need for an automatic, on-demand, self-adjusting brushing system that is easily maintained.